Wisconsin tribe moves to eject Enbridge Line 5 from reservation

ODANAH, WI -- A Wisconsin tribe has moved to eject from their reservation part of the Enbridge oil pipeline that runs underneath the Straits of Mackinac.

On Wednesday, Jan. 4, the Bad River Band of Lake Superior Chippewa passed a formal resolution to not renew Enbridge right-of-way easements for Line 5, which runs from Superior, Wis. to Sarnia, Ontario by way of Michigan.

A map of the Enbridge Line 5 pipeline.State of Michigan

The tribal council called for the pipeline's removal from all tribal lands and the watershed of the Bad River, which bisects the 124,000-acre reservation located on the shore of Lake Superior in Ashland and Iron counties.

The move against Line 5 comes amid a shifting landscape for oil pipelines marked by the successful Standing Rock protest efforts to stall the controversial Energy Transfer Partners' Dakota Access Pipeline in North Dakota and Enbridge's cancellation of the Sandpiper line to move Bakken oil through Minnesota.

Fears about how an oil spill might impact the Great Lakes have stoked a movement against Line 5 in Michigan, where the state is weighing what action, if any, it might take pending the results of an independent risk assessment.

Nonetheless, tribal leaders told the Associated Press the move against Line 5 has nothing to do with the other pipeline protests. The tribe believes it's only a matter of time before the aging line ruptures and "no amount of compensation or negotiation" will change its mind. It plans to reach out to federal, state and local officials for guidance on how to proceed with ejecting the pipeline.

The tribe has directed staff to prepare for recycling, disposal and surface restoration work that would accompany removal.

"As many other communities have experienced, even a minor spill could prove to be disastrous for our people," said Bad River Tribal Chairman Robert Blanchard. "We depend upon everything that the creator put here before us to live mino-bimaadiziwin, a good and healthy life."

The tribe says 15 right-of-way easements for Line 5 expired in 2013 and Enbridge has been in negotiations with them since then to renew those agreements. The tribe owns interest in 11 of 15 parcels that the pipeline crosses. The easements date back 64 years ago to 1953.

In a statement, Enbridge called the move a "surprise" after what it thought were several years of "good faith" negotiations over easement renewals. The company claims it has worked with tribal staff to operate the line safely and said the expired easements "do not represent our entire relationship with the Band."

Enbridge said it "still maintains an agreement with the Band into the 2040s" on other parcels of reservation the pipeline crosses.

The Canadian pipeline giant operates a huge cross-border crude oil pipeline network called the Lakehead System across Canada and the U.S. Midwest that moves about 2.8 million barrels of Canadian oil per day into the United States, which is about 60 percent of all Canadian crude moving across the border.

Line 5, part of the Lakehead system, moves up to 540,000 barrels of light crude and natural gas liquids per day across the Upper Peninsula, under the Straits of Mackinac and back into Canada at Marysville. On its 645-mile path, Line 5 crosses through more than 23 counties and 360 Michigan waterways.

Enbridge called Line 5 "a vital link to propane and other energy supplies in northern Wisconsin and the Upper Peninsula."

Enbridge said there's never been a Line 5 spill on the Bad River reservation, although Line 5 did rupture and spill five barrels of oil in the U.P.'s Hiawatha National Forest in Delta County around 1980.

Other Enbridge Lakehead pipelines have spilled oil in the past decade. In 2012, Enbridge Line 14 spilled 54,000 gallons in New Chester, Wis. In 2016, Enbridge was fined $62 million and agreed to spend $110 million on system upgrades following a $1.2 billion cleanup of 1.2 million gallons of heavy diluted bitumen crude that spilled from Line 6B into the Kalamazoo River in 2010.

In the Straits of Mackinac, Enbridge just completed a fall project to install more screw anchor supports on Line 5 after a June inspection found several areas where the pipeline crossed gaps in the lakebed greater than 75 feet, the maximum unsupported span length allowable under its 1953 easement.

In August, Michigan contracted with two companies to conduct independent studies on the pipeline that are expected to be finished in June 2017.

Dynamic Risk Assessment Systems of Calgary is evaluating alternatives to the existing twin underwater pipeline segments crossing the lakebed. Norway-based Det Norske Veritas is determining the financial risk of a worst-case oil spill and how much work and money would be needed for cleanup.

Enbridge has agreed to pay nearly $3.6 million for the studies, regardless of their conclusions, with a condition the Canadian pipeline giant be allowed to review the final studies five days before they are made public.